Growing up in Siauliai in northern Lithuania, a bustling city known for its iconic Hill of Crosses where Catholic visitors have placed thousands of religious symbols since the 1800s, Nacickaite yearned to travel to a faraway place to test herself and validate a dream.

With basketball in her young heart and the Lithuanian junior national team on her resume, Nacickaite wanted to come to the country where the sport was invented and try to parlay the experience into a better education.

Guided by the advice and experiences of friends and fellow international players, Nacickaite ended up at Regis last year as a junior and will attend Philadelphia’s Drexel University in the fall on scholarship, playing hoops while majoring in business.

Mission accomplished. Well, almost. First, there is that Class 5A basketball championship, which has become a grail of sorts to a fourth-year Regis program ranked nationally and both blessed and cursed by its meteoric rise.

Nacickaite, who played junior varsity last season so she could use the one year of varsity eligibility afforded to exchange students for her senior season, watched in March as a 25-1 Regis squad — in the Final Four for the third straight year — lost in the state semifinals to Legacy.

“I saw last year how they did and I was sitting on the bench. It was kind of sad when they lost,” Nacickaite said, her accent on the verge of disappearing. “Everybody wants to win here. We’re a really competitive team.”

Nacickaite is the new wrinkle to a squad trying to overcome the loss of leader Mindy Nielson, now at Brigham Young. But Regis still is stocked with the shake-your-head talents of juniors — and Division I shoo-ins — Mariah Williams, Meghan Winters, T’Keyah Shealy, Diana Rolniak and Mary Bokenkamp.

Nacickaite is solid fundamentally at 5-feet-11 with a strong frame, and will be used inside this season by coach Carl Mattei for her rebounding and defense. She has played in just five games this season for the 10-1 Raiders — whose one loss came at a tournament in New York last month — and is averaging eight points per game.

Although Williams thinks Nacickaite could have the ability “to score at will,” Mattei, who refreshingly stresses a fiery attention to detail, is comfortable with her as a role player who possesses the basketball knowledge and experience to glue together a team sure to be tested to its limits by defending state champion Highlands Ranch.

Of course, the mere fact Nacickaite arrived in a place more than 5,000 miles from home and any family prompted the usual prep conspiracy theories about recruiting and other claims — such as Mattei canvassing Eastern Europe in his spare time — that seem worthy of a tinfoil hat.

Nacickaite, who is Catholic, is here per the recommendation of friend and former Regis standout Aija Putnina, a Latvian international and sophomore at Colorado.

It’s similar to the collegiate advice Nacickaite took from friend Gabriela Marginean, a Romanian international and sophomore at Drexel.

Nacickaite’s positive experiences at Regis have kept the cycle going, as she recommended the school and coaches to Ruta Zuraskyte, her neighbor back in Siauliai. Zuraskyte, a towering junior with raw skills, now plays on Regis’ junior varsity squad.

The concept of chasing basketball dreams to the land of opportunity is not lost on the Regis coaching staff. Mattei grew up in Canada and longtime assistant and friend Matt Hema is from New Zealand.

“They understand the international students and how it feels to be in a new place,” Nacickaite said.

Nacickaite is happy to trade life near the Baltic Sea for a view of the Rocky Mountains, where she says the people always are smiling even if they aren’t all eating right.

“In America, on every corner there is fast-food place,” she said. “Probably in all of Lithuania you’ll find a couple. I don’t think we have one in my city.”

The Broncos' 2018 class of first-year players endured some lighthearted hazing after practice Tuesday in an annual event at UCHealth Training Center. Veterans played barber in the most hilarious (and mean) ways possible. Here is a collection of the best rookie haircuts this training camp.

The Rockies made a roster move on Tuesday in Houston ahead of the start of their six-game road trip, placing reliever Scott Oberg on the paternity list and recalling infielder Garrett Hampson from Triple-A Albuquerque in a corresponding move.